Flight planning to avoid cold, damp air is among possible techniques under study
Research being carried out into aircraft condensation trails (contrails) could result in air traffic management (ATM) procedures to route aircraft around the pockets of cold, damp air that lead to their formation, says Eurocontrol.
The technique is one of many options being studied by the organisation as part of efforts to alleviate the environmental impact of civil aviation through ATM measures.
Eurocontrol environment domain manager Andrew Watt says more research is needed to quantify the environmental threat posed by the artificial creation of cirrus clouds by aircraft contrails, thought by some to be a greater contributor to global warming than aviation carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Watt says: "One option could be re-routing to ensure aircraft do not pass through atmospheric conditions where contrails form. If there is a problem, we have to incorporate the whole scenario into flight planning. If we can predict where such sheets of damp, cold masses of air are, it may be possible to mitigate."
The Contrails project, led by the German aerospace centre's Institute of Atmospheric Physics and being carried out in partnership with Eurocontrol and the European Space Agency, aims to demonstrate reliable detection from space of contrail-induced cirrus, establish a correlation with air traffic density and estimate contrail-related global warming. It will also validate Eurocontrol's contrail prediction model and investigate the feasibility of a contrail prediction service and the potential role of ATMin contrail prevention.
There are concerns that the aviation industry may be forced to act if the impact of contrail-induced cirrus is "judged to be unacceptably high by political and regulatory authorities", say the researchers.
* Eurocontrol estimates the introduction of reduced vertical separation minima has reduced annual CO2 emissions by 975,000t - equivalent to 5,600 transatlantic flights.
ANDREW DOYLE / BRUSSELS
Source: Flight International
